---
title: Then there was a swish of water at his feet, and out peeped the head… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then there was a swish of water at his feet, and out peeped the head of the famous otter Doran-donn of the stream. Who acts: water. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/30/107/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/30/) / 107

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 30, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then there was a swish of water at his feet, and out peeped the head of the famous otter Doran-donn of the stream.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** water · **What happens:** be, swish · **To what, where:** feet

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (water), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg3027:30:107
# text = Then there was a swish of water at his feet, and out peeped the head of the famous otter Doran-donn of the stream.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	swish	swish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	out	out	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	peeped	peep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	famous	famous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	otter	otter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
21	Doran	Doran	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	donn	donn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | out, peep *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **swish** |  | water |  |  | swish's feet |  |  | nom swish «event intransitive»: of=agent at=place |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/30/106/)
- next →: [sentence 108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/30/108/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/30/)